Large, high resolution displays combine high pixel density with ample physical dimensions. Combination of these two factors creates a multi-scale workspace where object targeting requires both high speed and high accuracy for nearby and far apart targeting. Modern operating systems support dynamic control-display gain adjustment (i.e. cursor acceleration) that helps to maintain both speed and accuracy. However, very large high resolution displays require broad range of control-display gain ratios. Current interaction techniques attempt to solve the problem by utilizing multiple modes of interaction, where different modes provide different levels of pointer precision. We are investigating the question of the value of allowing users to dynamically choose granularity levels for continuous pointing within single mode of interaction via multiple acceleration curves. Our solution offers different cursor acceleration curves depending on the targeting conditions, thus broadening the range of control-display ratios. Our approach utilizes a consumer multitouch touchpad that allows fast and accurate detection of multiple fingers. A user can choose three different acceleration curves based on how many fingers are used for cursor positioning. Our goal is to investigate the effects of such multi-scale interaction and to compare it against standard single curve interaction. / Master of Science

<p>The total population of GPS-enabled location-based services (LBS) subscribers is constantly increasing. This fact implies new research possibilities for visualizing geospatial data produced by these mobile devices. The aim of this thesis is to explore novel techniques and methods to visualize the content of voice notes (messages recorded by users on GPS-enabled devices) that will be placed in maps using GPS coordinates, and visualize the semantical, temporal, and spatial relations between the notes. Our research is part of the Geovisualization field which deals with geospatial data.</p><p>Based on our research and analyzes of this problem, we combined different visualization and interaction techniques, thus providing a novel approach to achieve the research aim. We have built a prototype application, called GNV System (GeoAudio Notes Visualization System), that demonstrates our achievements.</p>

The total population of GPS-enabled location-based services (LBS) subscribers is constantly increasing. This fact implies new research possibilities for visualizing geospatial data produced by these mobile devices. The aim of this thesis is to explore novel techniques and methods to visualize the content of voice notes (messages recorded by users on GPS-enabled devices) that will be placed in maps using GPS coordinates, and visualize the semantical, temporal, and spatial relations between the notes. Our research is part of the Geovisualization field which deals with geospatial data. Based on our research and analyzes of this problem, we combined different visualization and interaction techniques, thus providing a novel approach to achieve the research aim. We have built a prototype application, called GNV System (GeoAudio Notes Visualization System), that demonstrates our achievements.

Context. Augmented reality (AR) is a technology that uses the camera to display what is seen on the screen and adds digital informationover the picture. This study analyses how augmented reality mightaect game experience when applied to real time strategy games. Objectives. Evaluate the available development tools, to implementthe game prototype and the AR interaction. Then develop interactive methods for AR and traditional version. Create a basic articialintelligence, design the experiment to evaluate game experience, completion time and score. Methods. The experiment were executed after implementation of thegame, in this the participant played both the traditional and augmented reality version of the same game. Before starting to play participant lled out a pre inquiry about their previous experience withgames, tablets and computers. After playing they answered a postinquiry with questions about the game. The comparing experimentwas conducted with several participants in a controlled environment. Results. The results show that most participants thought that theAR version had an interesting mechanic and that the game experiencehad been enhanced when compared to the PC version. However theparticipants thought the controls where better on the PC. Conclusions. The results indicated that the game experience basedon player performance, decreased in the AR version and that the controls were better on the PC. The participants thought that the PCversion was a little easier to play. However about 71% of the participants thought the game experience on the AR version was interestingbecause they could move around while playing. The most enjoyableversion of the game varied a lot between participants, having a slightpreference for the PC version of the game. However, participantsmanifested an interest in playing a sequel of the game in the AR version.

Les utilisateurs experts de SIG (Systèmes d'Information Géographique) doivent souvent mettre en relation et comparer des représentations hétérogènes d'une même région géographique. Par exemple, la mise à jour des bases des données géographiques, comme OpenStreetMap, nécessite une comparaison entre des cartes existantes et des images satellite récentes. Les moyens de combiner les cartes sont pourtant souvent limités à des techniques qui ne prennent pas en compte les données contenues dans les cartes, comme des techniques de superposition qui permettent de varier l'opacité de la couche supérieure. Ces techniques n'appuient pas efficacement les utilisateurs dans des tâches dans les domaines de l'analyse de crime ou la planification urbaine. Cette thèse vise à proposer des nouvelles transitions interactives pour combiner différentes représentations en une, soit de façon spatiale (multiplexage spatial) ou temporelle (multiplexage temporel). Afin de mieux comprendre les limites des techniques existantes, la première contribution de cette thèse est une évaluation de cinq techniques de comparaison de cartes interactives. On caractérise ces techniques par rapport à leur niveau de perturbation visuelle, de division de l'attention et leur stratégie de recherche. Pour les évaluer, on demande aux participants de trouver des différences entre des images aériennes et des cartes topographiques (modifiées à la main en ajoutant six types de différences). Les résultats suggèrent que les techniques qui superposent les couches sont plus efficaces que les techniques que les juxtaposent et qu'une stratégie de recherche motrice peut apporter des bénéfices pour certaines tâches. D'après les résultats de l'évaluation et des entretiens avec des utilisateurs experts en GIS, on introduit MapMosaic, la deuxième contribution de cette thèse. MapMosaic est une technique nouvelle de multiplexage spatial pour combiner des cartes. Ce modèle de composition dynamique permet aux utilisateurs de créer et manipuler des régions de composition locale de façon interactive, en considérant l'information sémantique et les attributs des objets et des champs. On a évalué MapMosaic en utilisant deux approches: premièrement, on compare son modèle d'interaction au modèle de QGIS (un logiciel SIG très utilisé) et MAPublisher (un outil cartographique professionnel) en utilisant les “Dimensions Cognitives” et avec une comparaison analytique, les résultats suggèrent que le modèle de MapMosaic est plus flexible et peut mieux appuyer les utilisateurs dans leur tâches. Ensuite, on rapporte des retours utilisateurs des experts qui confirment le potentiel de MapMosaic, grâce à des cas d'utilisation précis. Le multiplexage spatial peut être très utile pour comparer différentes couches géographiques. Cependant, le multiplexage temporal pourrait être plus approprié pour la représentation des dynamiques, puisque les changements peuvent être animes. Ceci pourrait être utile de façon particulière pour présenter des changements entre des images satellites, par exemple, pour montrer les effets du réchauffement climatique. Ainsi, la troisième contribution de la thèse est Baia: un cadre pour créer des transitions animées avancées, appelles plans d'animation, entre des couples d'images avant après. Baia est basé sur un modèle de transition par pixel qui permet de créer des animations très variées. Il reste simple d'utilisation grâce à des primitives d'animations prédéfinies permettant de représenter des changements géographiques communs facilement. On décrit le modèle et l'outil d'édition d'animation associé et deux études avec utilisateurs. Le premier suggère que les animations crées avec Baia sont perçues comme plus réalistes et focalisent mieux l'attention des spectateurs et le deuxième rassemble des retours sur l'outil d'édition d'animations. / GIS experts often need to relate and compare heterogeneous geographical representations of the same region. For example, existing maps are compared to recent satellite imagery to update geographic databases, like OpenStreetMap. The means to do so, are, however often limited to data agnostic techniques such as overlaying the representations with some degree of translucency or swiping between layers. These techniques do not support users effectively in their tasks in domains such as crime analysis or urban planning. This thesis aims at proposing new interactive transitions to combine those multiple representations into one, either spatially (spatial multiplexing) or temporally (temporal multiplexing).To better understand the limits of existing approaches, this thesis first contribution is an evaluation of five interactive map comparison techniques. We characterise these techniques in terms of visual interference, user attention and scanning strategy. We evaluate them by asking participants to find differences between real satellite imagery and topographic maps, that we purposefully modified introducing six kinds of differences. Results suggest that techniques that superimpose the layers are more efficient than techniques that juxtapose them and that having a more motor driven scanning strategy can be beneficial for some tasks. Drawing from the evaluation results and interviews with GIS experts, the second contribution of this thesis is MapMosaic: a novel spatial multiplexing technique to combine geographical layers. This dynamic compositing model enables users to interactively create and manipulate local composites of multiple vector and raster map layers, taking into account the semantics and attribute values of objects and fields. We evaluate MapMosaic using two approaches: first we compare MapMosaic’s interaction model to QGIS’ (a widely used desktop GIS) and MAPublisher’ (a professional cartography tool) using the ‘Cognitive Dimensions’ framework and through an analytical comparison, suggesting that MapMosaic’s model is more flexible and can support users more effectively in their tasks. Secondly, we report on feedback obtained from experts, which further confirms the potential of MapMosaic, by describing precise scenarios where it could be useful. Spatial multiplexing can be very useful when comparing different geographical layers. However, time multiplexing might be more suitable to represent dynamics, as changes can be animated. This can be particularly useful when presenting evolution across satellite images, to illustrate effects of climate change or a natural disaster’s impact. Thus, the third contribution of this thesis is Baia: a framework to create advanced animated transitions, called animation plans, between pairs of before-and-after images. Baia relies on a pixel-based transition model that gives authors much expressive power, while keeping animations for common types of changes easy to create thanks to predefined animation primitives. We describe the model and the associated animation editor. We also report on two user studies: the first one suggests that advanced animations are perceived as more realistic and better at focusing viewer’s attention than monolithic blending, and the second one gathers feedback about the usability of Baia’s animation editor prototype.

Freehand gestures have long been considered to potentially deliver natural, intuitive, terse but powerful human-computer interaction techniques. Over years, researchers have been attempting to employ freehand gestures as an alternative input modality to the conventional devices (e.g. keyboard and mouse) in a wide array of application domains, and a huge number of gesture recognition systems and gesture-based interaction techniques have been created in lab. However, a fundamental question remains: is it possible to establish an interaction framework so that we may approach freehand gestural interaction from a systematic perspective, and design coherent and consistent freehand gesture-based human-computer interaction experience? Existing research tends to focus on the technologies that enable the gestural interaction, or on the novel design of gestural interaction techniques for specific tasks and applications. Such "point designs" are claimed to be insufficient, and an existing application-specific design lends very limited insights and guidance to design problems in another application. An interaction framework allows us to move from individual designs to a more holistic approach. The goal of this research is to construct a framework to support a systematic approach for designing freehand gesture-based interactions. Toward this goal our research began with a review and examination of the gesture interaction literature, followed by an analysis of the essential components of an interaction framework. We then proposed and justified the scope of research and the approach we took to construct the interaction framework. We have designed and evaluated (analytically and empirically) gestural interaction techniques for two broad categories of freehand gestures we specified — spatial gestures, and surface gestures. In the design activity, we have discovered and proposed the core design principles and guidelines, and validated them via user studies. Finally, we assessed the ability of the freehand gesture interaction framework we have constructed to help designers create new applications and designs, by putting together a few proof-of-concept examples of a coherent and consistent freehand gesture user interface. / Ph. D.

Information visualization (info vis) deals with how to increase the bandwidth of effective communication between computer and human, enabling us to see more, understand more, and accomplish more. Traditionally, it deals with interaction and display techniques of visualizing often abstract data on the two-dimensional desktop. Immersive virtual environments (VEs) offer new, exciting possibilities for information visualization. Immersion gives an enhanced realistic effect, and can improve spatial understanding and orientation. By identifying or developing useful interaction techniques (ITs), we can develop VE systems for better information visualization. This thesis has two different experiments that were related to two different sides of the study of use of immersion for VEs. One of the experiments is related to abstract data visualization in an immersive VE. The other one was motivated by the need for enhancing a realistic VE with additional data. In our first experiment, our focus is on implementing overview+detail techniques in VEs. Our hypothesis is that VE-specific ITs should borrow from, but not copy existing 2D IT technique for overview +detail. We develop ITs for use in VEs and show that they are easy to use and useful using task-based usability evaluation. We develop the "jump" technique for use in this application, which can be generalized to numerous other applications. The tangible contribution of this research is Wizard, an application for infovis in VEs. Our second hypothesis is that if the data to be visualized has inherent spatial attributes, it can be visualized well in immersive virtual environments. We investigate the trends using an experiment that tests people's understanding of spatial attributes under immersive and desktop conditions. Although not statistically significant, we observed a moderate trend indicating that immersion decreases the time needed to perform a spatial information- gathering task. We believe that this area of research can be applied immediately to the applications currently being developed. / Master of Science

No / This chapter discusses important aspects of visual representations and interaction techniques necessary to support visual analytics. It covers five primary topics. First, it addresses the need for scientific principles for depicting information. Next, it focuses on methods for interacting with visualizations and considers the opportunities available given recent developments in input and display technologies. Third, it addresses the research and technology needed to develop new visual paradigms that support analytical reasoning. Then, it discusses the impact of scale issues on the creation of effective visual representations and interactions. Finally, it considers alternative ways to construct visualization systems more efficiently

Yes / Scientific data acquired through sensors which monitor natural phenomena, as well as simulation data that imitate time‐identified events, have fueled the need for interactive techniques to successfully analyze and understand trends and patterns across space and time. We present a novel interactive visualization technique that fuses ground truth measurements with simulation results in real‐time to support the continuous tracking and analysis of spatiotemporal patterns. We start by constructing a reference model which densely represents the expected temporal behavior, and then use GPU parallelism to advect measurements on the model and track their location at any given point in time. Our results show that users can interactively fill the spatio‐temporal gaps in real world observations, and generate animations that accurately describe physical phenomena.

Este trabalho apresenta uma técnica para deformação interativa de objetos 3D não estruturados que combina o uso de sketches em 2D e manipulação interativa de curvas. Através de sketches no plano de imagem, o usuário cria curvas paramétricas a serem usadas como manipulares para modificar a malha do objeto. Um conjunto de linhas desenhadas sobre a projeção do modelo pode ser combinado para criar um esqueleto composto de curvas paramétricas, as quais podem ser interativamente manipuladas, deformando assim a superfície associada a elas. Deformações livres são feitas movendo-se interativamente os pontos de controle das curvas. Alguns outros efeitos interessantes, como torção e escalamento, são obtidos operando-se diretamente sobre o campo de sistemas de coordenadas criado ao longo da curva. Um algoritmo para evitar inter-penetrações na malha durante uma sessão de modelagem com a técnica proposta também é apresentado. Esse algoritmo é executado a taxas interativas assim como toda a técnica apresentada neste trabalho. A técnica proposta lida naturalmente com translações e grandes rotações, assim como superfícies não orientáveis, não variedades e malhas compostas de múltiplos componentes. Em todos os casos, a deformação preserva os detalhes locais consistentemente. O uso de curvas esqueleto permite implementar a técnica utilizando uma interface bem intuitiva, e provê ao usuário um controle preciso sobre a deformação. Restrições sobre o esqueleto e deformações sem inter-penetrações são facilmente conseguidos. É demonstrada grande qualidade em torções e dobras nas malhas e os resultados mostram que a técnica apresentada é consideravelmente mais rápida que as abordagens anteriores, obtendo resultados similares. Dado seu relativo baixo custo computacional, esta abordagem pode lidar com malhas compostas por centenas de milhares de vértices a taxas interativas. / This work presents a technique for interactive shape deformation of unstructured 3D models, based on 2D sketches and interactive curve manipulation in 3D. A set of lines sketched on the image plane over the projection of the model can be combined to create a skeleton composed by parametric curves, which can be interactively manipulated, thus deforming the associated surfaces. Free-form deformations are performed by interactively moving around the curves’ control points. Some other interesting effects, such as twisting and scaling, are obtained by operating directly over a frame field defined on the curve. An algorithm for mesh local self-intersection avoidance during model deformation is also presented. This algorithm is executed at interactive rates as is the whole technique presented in this work. The presented technique naturally handles both translations and large rotations, as well as non-orientable and non-manifold surfaces, and meshes comprised of multiple components. In all cases, the deformation preserves local features. The use of skeleton curves allows the technique to be implemented using a very intuitive interface, and giving the user fine control over the deformation. Skeleton constraints and local self-intersection avoidance are easily achieved. High-quality results on twisting and bending meshes are also demonstrated, and the results show that the presented technique is considerably faster than previous approaches for achieving similar results. Given its relatively low computational cost, this approach can handle meshes composed by hundreds of thousand vertices at interactive rates.